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UNH Insect and Arachnid Collections

The University of New Hampshire Insect Collection was initially
started by C. M. Weed and W. F. Fisk in 1891 when the then New Hampshire
Agricultural and Technical College was still in Hanover, New Hampshire.
After the move to Durham in 1893, the collection has grown to over
600,000 specimens and nearly 12,000 species taken from the northern New
England states (MA, ME, NH, VT). The growth of the collection has been
driven by intensive inventories of 10 unique and/or natural areas within
the state, including the alpine zone of Mt. Washington, Seabrook sand
dunes, The Bowl Natural Area in White Mountains National Forest, and
Spruce Hole kettle bog near Durham. Other strengths of the collection
lie in coverage of the forest floor insect groups from the northeastern
United States and northern California, though the species taken from
these and other areas outside of northern New England are not reflected
in the checklist.

Notable specialist donations that have added to the strength of the UNH
Insect Collection are: the Alfred J. Kistler Collection of Coleoptera,
the Donald J. Lennox Collection of Lepidoptera, the Wallace J. Morse
Collection of Odonata, the R. Marcel Reeves Collection of Mites. Other
major contributions were given by S. Albert Shaw, and Lorus and Marjory
Milne.

Collection records from the northern New England states and New
Hampshire inventory sites are maintained in a FileMaker Pro
database, which is regularly updated. The records given here are based
on specimens in the UNH collection, but eventually literature and other
verifiable records will be incorporated into the checklist.

I would like to thank all specialists, past and present, for their
identifications. Regional collections absolutely rely on the cooperation
and enthusiasm of colleagues, for which there is often little reward
other than the sharing of specimens. An accurate and thorough checklist
could never be developed without your participation.

-Donald Chandler, Professor of Zoology and Curator

If you have any comments/suggestions concerning these pages or data, send e-mail to Don Chandler at: dsc1@unh.edu